At Crighton Abbey
I had initially intended to so a Research Circle option for this assignment, but I since I struggled to find enough relevant resources, I reworked it into an essay. It has not yet received a grade in its reworked form.
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For the first Interpretive
Problem assignment, I examined the short story At Crighton Abbey,
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. This story tells of the events immediately
preceding the untimely demise of Edward Crighton, the last male heir in the
long history of a rather unlucky family. For generations now, the
first-born males of the Crighton line have died suddenly just before
reaching marriageable age. Each of these deaths was heralded by
the appearance of a spectral hunting party, giving rise to the rumor that there
is a curse on the family. At the beginning of the story, Edward is about
to get married, and his parents are biting their nails, hoping that he will
survive the remaining few weeks till his wedding, at which point they believe
he will be safe from the curse. Edward, however, has been left
entirely in the dark about the existence of the curse. Given the amount of
danger that his parents seem to believe him to be in, it seems odd that they
would keep this information from him. According to a servant who has been
with the family for years, Mr. and Mrs. Crighton have avoided explaining the
curse to Edward because they did not want to give him cause for worry.
Given, however, that Edward is a robust and somewhat hard-headed young
man who doesn't seem like the type to be alarmed by a ghost story, this answer
didn't cut it for me. Is there another reason that Mr. and Mrs. Crighton
would hide this information from their son? If so, what is it? Or,
is it possible that Braddon included this seeming inconsistency in order to
work some dramatic irony into her plot?
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| A traditional English hunting party such as Sarah might have seen. Who would believe that such a jolly party could portend a tragic death? |
When I
first started working on the interpretive problem assignment, I tried to
consider any possible reasons Mr. and Mrs. Crighton could have for hiding the
story of the curse from their son, but struggled to find one that fit the bill.
The most plausible answer I could come up with was that the Crightons were
afraid that telling Edward about the curse would only provoke him to engage in
rash and foolish behavior, in an attempt to prove to them that their belief in
the curse was foolish. The fact that Edward is described by his family members
at various times as being impulsive and proud would seem to support this
explanation, as does Mrs. Crighton's explanation to Sarah that, "He will
have greater reason to be careful of his life when he is a married man."
Sarah herself, after first hearing of the supposed curse, says that she
believes Edward to be "too strong minded to be much affected by the
fact." Clearly, all those who know Edward realize that telling him
about the curse would hardly be enough to dissuade him from going
hunting. But if this is the case, then why did the Crighton's not find
another means of preventing Edward from leaving?
One
possible explanation for this is that the Crighton's were afraid of seeming
silly or superstitious. At first, this theory seems to stand up to
scrutiny. After all, the Crightons are prominent members of society in
their town, and thus have a vested interest in retaining at least a veneer of
wisdom and sensibility. Such proud and well-to-do gentlefolks would
surely hate to be the laughingstock of the neighborhood. Shortly after
Edward announces his intentions of going hunting, Mrs. Crighton makes a speech
which sheds some light on her and her husband's state of mind on this matter.
She says, "
His father and I have always made a point of avoiding anything that could seem
like domestic tyranny. Our dear boy is such a good son, that it would be very
hard if we came between him and his pleasures. You know what a morbid horror my
husband has of the dangers of the hunting-field, and perhaps I am almost as
weak-minded." Weak-minded? Aha! So
the Crightons do view their concern about the curse as a fault.
It would seem then, that Edward's parents
are simply caught between a rock and a hard place. On one level, they are genuinely concerned
about their son's safety. They are even
ready to bless his marriage to a woman they disapprove of, simply because they
feel that it is best to have him safely married as soon as possible. On the other hand, they realize that it would
take nothing short of making tyrannical threats - something they are not willing to do - to even
make Edward consider staying home from the hunting trip, and even then, such
measures might have the opposite effect and make Edward even more desperate to
go hunting. The Crighton's do not try to
intervene in this case because they realize that they are powerless to convince
their son not to go. The best they can
do is hope that he remains safe in spite of their fears. Although initially it would seem to make
sense to criticize the parents for failing to ensure their son's safety, in
this case, the Crighton's can hardly be blamed.
They did the best they could to keep Edward safe, while ensuring that he
did not grow up in the shadow of fear.
Since
there is a lack of evidence in the story itself to provide an answer to this
question, perhaps we can turn to an examination of the literary techniques
Braddon employs. One of the most noticeable techniques in this
story is the dramatic irony. Since the reader knows about the curse, but
Edward does not, Braddon has created a situation in which the reader has a good
idea of what is coming next, but the characters involved are painfully
oblivious. This technique can create a good deal of tension and suspense
- both of which contribute to the "creepiness factor" of the tale.
Because of its ability to make a reader's heart race with anticipation,
dramatic irony is a technique commonly used in Gothic literature. Many
Gothic stories rely on the reader having some idea of the horrors that await
the tragically naive narrator in order to create a gripping and suspenseful
tale. Consider the parts of Dracula which are narrated
by Johnathon Harker. Throughout the novel, Harker is confronted with
obvious signs that something is terribly wrong at Castle Dracula. Almost
any reader in Harker's shoes would have turned and run after the warnings from
the peasants at the very beginning of the novel. We can see that Harker
is in for it, but Harker himself remains clueless. This may leave us wanting to
shake Harker, but it keeps us on the edges of our seats nonetheless. We
also see this technique in many other Victorian Gothic tales. It is used
to great effect in Edgar Allen Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," as the
reader knows that Montressor plans to kill the oh-so-ironically named
Fortunato. Considering the prevalence of dramatic irony in this genre, it
seems reasonable to posit that Braddon left Edward unaware of the curse in
order to utilize this technique. If her intention in doing so was to
create suspense within her story, it certainly worked.
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